He looked at her, seeing her white face, her terrified eyes. How he had wanted to protect her. God help him, protect himself. Thinking he could be something to her, build a future and still hide what he was. Still know only her sweet passion and woman’s heart rather than her disgust.
“I have to talk to Mike.”
He had to figure this out. Had to inform Kane Tyler of the changing situation. This would assure Cassie’s acceptance into the compound rather than only the consideration of it. Dash had understood the Pride’s stand and had been praying for a positive response. He hadn’t expected his prayers to be answered in quite this way.
“No. You have to talk to me.” She gripped his arm, her voice echoing with anger, filled with demand.
“You talk to me first, damn you. What does that f**king mark mean?”
“Not yet, Elizabeth. I have to talk to Mike.” He couldn’t tell her.
“Like hell you do.” She shook his arm furiously, fear echoing in her voice. “You tell me what’s going on first, damn you. That’s my baby, Dash. Not Mike’s. What the hell is going on?”
Dash closed his eyes, shaking his head roughly as he tore his arm from her grip.
“Go to Cassie. Now,” he snapped. “I have to talk to Mike first.”
He stormed from the room, knowing the lateness of the hour, the fact that Mike was comfortably in bed with his loving wife, likely dreaming dreams of bliss. A short bitter grunt sounded from his chest. Must be f**king nice.
He found his friend’s room and rapped the door with hard knuckles. He heard a grunt, a curse, Serena’s drowsy voice. Seconds later, Mike opened the door, his eyes blurry with sleep.
“What?” His eyes cleared when he saw Dash. Dash knew the fury raging inside him was clearly in evidence.
“She’s a Breed.” His voice was flat with pain.
“What?” Mike shook his head, clearly confused.
Dash couldn’t blame him. He was having a hell of a time understanding himself.
“Cassie,” he growled. “That’s why Grange wants her. She’s a Breed, Mike. A Wolf Breed. Just like me.”
“No!” Elizabeth’s shocked, disbelieving voice had him turning slowly. She had followed him. Somehow, his mind consumed with rage and pain, he had been unaware of her behind him. He knew now. She was staring at him like the animal he was. Her eyes wide, disbelieving, as she watched him with heartbreaking horror, fighting to deny the truth of what she heard. The truth that the man she had nearly taken into her body, the man whose tongue had plunged into her mouth was an animal. Bitter acceptance filled his mind as he watched her. She looked like she was going to be sick. He growled, a low animalistic rumble that had Mike cursing and Elizabeth shaking in terror. He knew what his eyes looked like in the hall, the dim light overhead reflecting at just the right angle, turning them a demonic red without the sheltering protection of the contact lenses he wore when needed. An animal. An animal she had nearly f**ked.
He could see it in her eyes as she backed away from him. Saw it in the glazed need to escape as she turned and ran for her room. And he was behind her. She would try to take Cassie and escape him now.
Run from the animal. From the beast. Escape a truth she didn’t want to accept. There wasn’t a chance in hell he would let her get away from him.
He caught her at his bedroom door, his arm wrapping around her waist as she fought him, clawing at him as he dragged her against the wall, her fist nearly connecting with his jaw as she broke from his hold. Breathing hard, her eyes wild in her white face, she faced him.
Chapter Twelve
Elizabeth knew she shouldn’t have been so completely shocked. The past two years had been a series of betrayals and upheavals that she could have never imagined. But this. She didn’t know if she could survive this.
“You’re wrong.” She pointed her finger at him, then lowered it as she realized how hard she was shaking. “It’s not possible.”
“You saw the mark, Elizabeth.” His head was lowered. His eyes blazed back at her in fury, in determination.
This couldn’t be happening. She wanted to slap herself, to tear herself out of this new, horrible nightmare suddenly exploding within her mind. She couldn’t be awake. This couldn’t be real. Her daughter wasn’t created in a damned lab. She had been conceived within her womb, carried to full term and delivered in a hospital under the eyes of a caring obstetrician. Tests. Immunizations. Every care had been taken to make certain Cassie was healthy, free of defects. A perfect baby girl. And now he was ripping what was left of her life apart. Telling her that Cassie was more than she had believed, that her baby now faced the danger of not just Grange, but a deranged Council who was even more powerful. If they found out. If they knew… The consequences slammed into her head, making her fight it instinctively. Not her child.
“It’s a coincidence.” Her hands pressed against her stomach as she swallowed deeply, fighting the bile rising in her throat. It couldn’t be possible.
He laughed, a low, feral sound lacking in amusement. The sound ripped over her nerves, shredding them further. It was animalistic, dangerous. There was no amusement in his voice, only savage acceptance of what he was and what he faced. The man she had fallen in love with before she ever met him would be taken from her as well. Not just her baby, but Dash would be gone. How would she ever manage to hold either of them to her now?
“If there’s one thing I know, Elizabeth,” he informed her harshly, “it’s about being a Breed and how to hide it. You can’t hide the marker, though. Nothing can erase it. It’s a genetic imprint created to keep just this from ever happening. To be certain if conception occurred, then a Breed child could be identified. The Council was fanatical about not mixing the animals in the general population.”
She swayed. God. This wasn’t happening. Please don’t let it be happening, she prayed. If she thought the past two years had been a nightmare, then this was hell and she was being plunged in head first. No chance to test the heat. No chance to accept the danger and the pain. No chance to plan a way out. She wouldn’t accept it.
“My daughter is not an animal.” She wanted to scream the words, needed to make certain he heard her, understood her. She didn’t care what he thought he was, but her daughter wasn’t an animal. And she sure as hell wasn’t an experiment. “And neither is she a Breed. She’s my baby.” Her hands knotted at her abdomen. “I had her. I carried her. She looks like me.”